The King in the City of Angels

Taking a looking at the consequences and repercussions of Lebron James’s move to the Los Angeles Lakers.

When Lebron James announced his decision to move to the Los Angeles Lakers, ripples spread across not only the NBA but the entire sports world. After all, Lebron is arguably the best player in the NBA and one of the world’s most marketable athletes. People immediately pitched in to give their opinions about the move, from the biggest sports anchors to random social media commenters. Majority concurred that this was an expected move and many had seen this coming.

There are many reasons this could be seen as the right move by Lebron. LA offers him a chance to be close to the show business promoting his brand to greater heights. He also has an opportunity to prove his worth in the relatively tougher Western conference and a chance to add his own story to the illustrious history of the LA Lakers. A month and half into the NBA season, as the teams get into the swing of things and the competition starts to heat up, how are the LA Lakers and Lebron James doing?

First, Lebron’s trade led to quite a lot of movement between teams to make up for their weaknesses. The stronger teams looked to build up a strong bench to help support their stars while the weaker teams looked to land a superstar to vault their team into the spotlight. The East conference became an attractive place for stars to make their mark given that the throne of the Eastern conference, held for 9 years by James, now sits empty. The Lakers themselves made quite a few trades in order to ensure Lebron had a good supporting cast for the upcoming season while the younger players on the Lakers benefitted from the veteran experience one of the best players in the world brought with him.

Surprisingly, the predictions turned out to be quite accurate. The Lakers had a rough start to the season, where a string of losses had many questioning whether Lebron made the right move. There were a few bright spots with some stellar performances by Lebron that managed to push the Lakers to victory but this raised questions about the team’s situation in the long run. How long will Lebron be able to carry this team on his back especially now that he is past his physical prime? A few terrible games by the Lakers prompted Lebron to announce to the media that “He has to tell himself to calm down and be patient” which showed that all was not going as Lebron expected. An advantage for the Lakers is that the Western Conference so far has been in a turmoil, with teams like Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets also struggling. This has levelled out the playing field and the Lakers find themselves in not too bad a position though how long this will last is hard to say.

What has been good is that the Lakers are in a better position compared to their 2017 season which was a disaster. The players on the team seem to be improving, given that they have a strong leader while Lebron has started to find his groove given his recent string of impressive performances. The Lakers are certainly getting their money’s worth marketing wise with Lebron’s jerseys being the second most sold in the country and Lebron himself has seen his brand grow hugely. The Eastern and Western conferences are now more equal in terms of competition which was all elicited by Lebron’s trade which has spiced up the ongoing season. It’s a new situation for Lebron, to move to a team that is struggling and it definitely tests his leadership skills, but this trade has more positive consequences than negative and it has overall got the fans excited for another blistering season of NBA basketball.